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Brazilian Sketches
By
Rev. T. B. Ray, D.D.
Educational Secretary of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern
Baptist Convention.
TO MY WIFE WHO SHARED THE JOURNEY WITH ME
CONTENTS
I. THE COUNTRY
II. THE CAPITAL, RIO DE JANEIRO
III. A VISIT TO A COUNTRY CHURCH
IV. TWO PRESIDENTS
V. THE GOSPEL WITHHELD
VI. SAINT WORSHIP
VII. PENANCE AND PRIEST
VIII. THE GOSPEL TRIUMPHANT
IX. JOSE BARRETTO
X. CAPTAIN EGYDIO
XI. FELICIDADE (Felicity)
XII. PERSECUTION
XIII. THE BIBLE AS A MISSIONARY FACTOR
XIV. THE METTLE OF THE NATIVE CHRISTIAN
XV. THE TESTING OF THE MISSIONARY
XVI. THE URGENT CALL
XVII. THE LAST STAND OF THE LATIN RACE
APPENDIX
FOREWORD.
I was dining one day with a very successful business man who, although
his business had extensive relations in many lands, was meagerly
informed about the work of missions. I thought I might interest him by
telling him something of the effects of missions upon commerce. So I
told him about how the civilizing presence of missionary effort creates
new demands which in turn increases trade. He listened comprehendingly
for a while and then remarked: "What you say is interesting, but what I
wish to know is not whether missions increase business--we have
business enough and have methods of increasing the volume--What I want
to know is whether the missionary is making good and whether
Christianity is making good in meeting the spiritual needs of the
heathen. If ever I should become greatly interested in missions it
would be because I should feel that Christianity could solve the
spiritual problem for the heathen better than anything else. What are
the facts about that phase of missions?"
These words made a profound impression on me, and since then I have
spent little time in setting forth the by-products of missions,
tremendously important and interesting though they are. I place the
main emphasis on how gloriously Christianity, through the efforts of
the missionary, meets the aching spiritual hunger of the heathen heart
and transforms his life into spiritual efficiency.
Since this is my conception of what the burden of the message
concerning missions should be, it should not surprise anyone to find
the following pages filled with concrete statements of actual gospel
triumphs. I have endeavored to draw a picture of the religious
situation in Brazil by reciting facts. I have described some of the
work of others done in former years and I have recorded some wonderful
manifestations of the triumphant power of the gospel which I was
privileged to see with my own eyes. These pages record testimony which
thing, I take it, most people desire concerning the missionary
enterprise. More arguments might have been stated and more conclusions
might have been expressed, but I have left the reader to make his own
deductions from the facts I have tried faithfully to record.
No attempt has been made to follow in detail the itinerary taken by my
wife and myself which carried us into Brazil, Argentina and Chili in
South America, and Portugal and Spain in Europe. It is sufficient to
know that we reached the places mentioned and can vouch for the truth
of the facts stated.
I have confined myself to sketches about Brazil because I did not
desire to write a book of travel, but to show how the gospel succeeds
in a Catholic field as being an example of the manner in which it is
succeeding in other similar lands where it is being preached vigorously.
I wish to say also that I have drawn the materials from the experiences
of my own denomination more largely because I know it better and
therefore could bear more reliable testimony. It should be borne in
mind that the successes of this one denomination are typical of the
work of several other Protestant bodies now laboring in Brazil.
The missionaries and other friends made it possible wherever we went to
observe conditions at close range and under favorable auspices. To
these dear friends who received us so cordially and labored so
untiringly for our comfort and to make our visit most helpful we would
express here our heartfelt gratitude. We record their experiences and
ours in the hope that the knowledge of them may bring to the reader a
better appreciation of the missionary and the great cause for which the
missionary labors so self-sacrificingly.
Richmond, Va.
CHAPTER I.
THE COUNTRY.
We had sailed in a southeasternly direction from New York twelve days
when we rounded Cape St. Roque, the easternmost point of South America.
A line drawn due north from this point would pass through the Atlantic
midway between Europe and America. If we had sailed directly south we
should have touched the western instead of the eastern coast, for the
reason that practically the entire continent of South America lies east
of the parallel of longitude which passes through New York.
After sighting land we sailed along the coast three days before we cast
anchor at Bahia, our first landing place. Two days more were required
to reach Rio de Janeiro. When we afterwards sailed from Rio to Buenos
Aires, Argentina, we spent three and one-half days skirting along the
shore of Brazil. For eight and one-half days we sailed in sight of
Brazilian territory, and had we been close enough to shore north of
Cape St. Roque, we should have added three days more to our survey of
these far-stretching shores. Brazil lies broadside to the Atlantic
Ocean with a coast line almost as long as the Pacific and Atlantic
seaboards of the United States combined. Its ocean frontage is about
4,000 miles in length.
This coast line, however, is not all the water front of Brazil. She
boasts of the Amazon, the mightiest river in the world. This stream is
navigable by ships of large draught for 2,700 miles from its mouth. It
has eight tributaries from 700 to 1,200 miles and four from 1,500 to
2,000 miles in length. One of these, the Madeira, empties as much water
into the larger stream as does the Mississippi into the Gulf. No other
river system drains vaster or richer territory. It drains one million
square miles more than does the Mississippi, and in all it has 27,000
miles of navigable waters.
The land connections of Brazil are also extensive. All the other
countries on the continent, save Chili and Ecuador, border on Brazil.
The Guianas and Venezuela, on the north; Colombia and Peru on the west;
Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay on the south--eight countries
in all.
It is indeed a vast territory. The United States could be placed within
its borders and still there would be left enough Brazilian territory to
make a State as large as Texas.
Almost from the time we sighted land until we rounded the cape near
Montevideo, we could see the mountains along the shore. The mountains
extend far interior and up and down the length of the country. The
climate of the tropical Amazon Valley is, of course, very hot, but as
soon as the mountains are reached on the way south the climate even in
the tropical section is modified. The section south of Rio, on account
of the mountains and other forces of nature, has a temperate climate,
delightful for the habitation of man. Each of these great zones, the
tropical, the subtropical and the temperate, is marked more by its
distinctive leading products than by climate. Each of these sections
yields a product in which Brazil leads the world. The largest and most
inexhaustible rubber supply in the world is found in the Amazon Valley
region. The central section raises so much cocoa that it gives Brazil
first rank in the production of this commodity. The great temperate
region produces three-fourths of all the coffee used in the world. Of
course, there is much overlapping in the distribution of these
products. Other products, such as cotton, farinha, beans, peas,
tobacco, sugar, bananas, are raised in large quantities and could be
far more extensively produced if the people would utilize the best
methods and implements of modern agriculture. The mountains are full of
ores and the forests of the finest timber, and the great interior has
riches unknown to man. It has the most extensive unexplored region on
earth. What the future holds for this marvelously endowed country, when
her resources are revealed and brought to market, no one would dare
predict. Few countries in the world would venture a claim to such
immense riches.